Our Kids, Our Friends?

Are we deluding ourselves? Can we really be our kids friends in the true sense?

When the kids are small, (12 years and below), it is very easy to be friends. Friendship here only entails playing their favorite sports with them, watching a favorite movie with them, enjoying a McDonald’s burger with them, completely agreeing with them that they are right when ever they have a fight with anyone (considering we are their friends while listening to their rant, even if we have a different opinion as parent, which we can explain to them later).

But, when the kids are teenagers, lies the real challenge. Can we really be like their friends??  Can we think that internet is the coolest thing ever happened to mankind? Can we think that Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook are indispensable? Can we talk like them? Can we at least keep calm and  smile when our kids say “CHILL”?

Can we just say it’s cool when our kid comes back home and says he likes a person of the opposite gender? I think most of us will actually think, “My God, he/she is grown up.”

We are at a better place than our parents.  Our kids are more open and feel more comfortable to share their happiness, sorrow and their apprehensions. Most of us did not have this kind of relationship with our parents.

So the need of the hour is drawing a line between being a parent and a friend. Yes, we can be friends  with our kids. We can be that one best friend every one has, who is like a mirror. Who can tell it like it is. Who is with us no matter what.  Yes, best friends quarrel sometimes, disagree sometimes but then they are the only ones who understand each other completely.

I am my son’s best friend.

First published here.

Image is a still from the movie Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na

lalitha

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